#(Work was outsourced there but also confined to the Pacific NW specifically; because River's grandma liked to keep a fierce grip on what )

[red-hemlock]

Headcanon: Hometown

River is not a native Gothamite, instead hailing from a small coastal town called Juttica, in the pacific northwest state of Oregon. Once a semi-successful logging town, it enjoyed prosperity for a little over 100 years before falling into a nosediving decline when the surrounding timber reserves began drying-up. Its fate was effectively sealed, when a portion of the huge sawmill on the town outskirts caught fire... That mill was the beating heart of the place, and the permanent closing of its doors condemned it to the slowest of deaths.

Even in its booming heyday Juttica wasn't particularly large, but currently it is effectively a ghost town, boasting a population of only 15 and gradually shrinking... Most of the remaining are aged individuals, the last of their family lines or those just too plain stubborn to leave. River herself wouldn't be able to recall seeing more than a few spatterings of people here and there, on those odd outings she and her siblings and cousins would take into the town; at the time when she was young, the population was probably 35 at best.

River's family is older than Juttica. They were there, watching from the woods as the town was born, and were there to witness its downfall; and will be there when the rest of the townsfolk become a distant memory. The Lockes never interacted with the town back then, but now that they outnumber the populous, some of the younger members like to wander down and use the rotting buildings for exploratory purposes, and to practice their free-running skills on dangerous surfaces. Juttica's inhabitants likewise ignore them, and are unaware of what the Locke children are really up to: believing the occasional visitors to be the kids of tourists simply interested in exploring a ghost town.

The old sawmill and the town's derelict lighthouse were River's favorite spots as a child.